1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a writer error recovery system adapted to automatically start the recovery of any write error found in a magnetic disk upon writing any data in a sector part provided on the magnetic disk.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A prior write error recovery system will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 9.
FIG. 6 is a schematic illustrating the prior write error recovery system.
As shown in the figure, designated at 1 is a disk device, 2 is a disk controller for controlling the disk device 1, 2a is a disk control program provided in the disk controller 2, 3 is a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as a CPU.) for forcing the disk controller to start I/O operation. 4 is a channel for transferring I/O instructions issued from the CPU 3 to the disk controller 2, and 5 is a main memory for storing a driver program 5a serving to operate the disk device 1 and for storing a disk initialization program 5b for writing any data in an alternate track after any error is produced.
In addition, FIGS. 7 and 8 are schematical views respectively illustrating the arrangement of sector parts provided on a magnetic disk. In FIG. 7, A1 to A5 respectively illustrate sector parts, and in FIG. 8, A21 is a header part in each of the sector parts A1 to A5 shown in FIG. 7 and A22 is a data part in the sector part A3.
Hereupon, the header part A21 comprises a plurality of subsections (three in the figure).
In what follows, operation of such a prior write error recovery system will be described in accordance with a process thereof shown in FIG. 9.
Upon a write request from a user to the disk (step S12), the CPU 3 drives the disk controller 2 in conformity with the driver program 5a stored in the main memory 5 for writing in the disk (Step S13). When any write error is produced (Step 14), the CPU 3 sends back the write error to a user program to end the execution of that program, and informs the user of the write error (Step 15). An operator, as informed of the write error in the disk, assigns an alternate sector to that error sector using the disk initialization program 5b (Step S16). That is, a numeral 5 indicative of the alternate sector part A5 and an error mark E are written in the header part A21 of the sector parts A1 to A5, in which the error is produced, with use of the disk initialization program 5b, as shown in FIG. 8 for example. The alternate sector part A5 is thereafter rewritten (Step S17).
However, such a prior disk write error recovery system arranged as described above suffers from a problem that any error is once produced therein in ordinary use, the alternate sector can not be determined after the end of the error. Moreover, it suffers from another problem that any error not produced upon checking of the disk can not be processed.